Seagate or Western Digital?

[spiralfuzion]

So I've been wanting to back my files on another hard drive and would like to get something like a wd blue 2TB or red but have seen so many people getting hard drives that fail absurdly fast or don't work. I've seen people on WD blue reviews on amazon saying that they'll ship you a refurbished hard drive if your brand new one fails. I've considered seagate but I don't know much about them because I only have used WD blue's. I'll be using the drive for my plex media server and other various files. I've heard that both seagate and WD are just as reliable as each other but it scares me. The WD reds have been catching fire and it hasn't been a few people it is a reasonable amount of people having their Hard drives catch actual fire. What do you guys recommend? Thanks!

[Enderman]

No problem with my WD red here...

I've had better luck with WD than seagate, my seagate drive started having relocated sectors after only a few years.

[spiralfuzion]

4 hours ago, Enderman said:

No problem with my WD red here...

I've had better luck with WD than seagate, my seagate drive started having relocated sectors after only a few years.

I'm a little scared haha. I''ve had this WD blue since 2013 and it's been running strong even after formatting it multiple times. The warranty is the scary thing. They'll send me a refurbished one if my drive fails within the 2 year period.  

[Leonard]

Seagate! I still use an IDE one for the TV.  Seagate --->Toshiba(X300)---->HGST.

[AresKrieger]

7 minutes ago, spiralfuzion said:

on amazon saying that they'll ship you a refurbished hard drive

I won't buy seagate drives due to past premature failures, as for the refurb thing that I wouldn't be surprised if that was present throughout the industry but if you want to know for sure read the warranty policy and see if it says replace with new product or something to that effect

[spiralfuzion]

4 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

I won't buy seagate drives due to past premature failures, as for the refurb thing that I wouldn't be surprised if that was present throughout the industry but if you want to know for sure read the warranty policy and see if it says replace with new product or something to that effect

the one on amazon isnt even listed on their warrenty page. WD blue https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013QFRS2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505015655&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+blue+2tb 

 

That's weird.

[spiralfuzion]

maybe I have to buy the warranty from amazon. Edit: nvm it's only data recovery plan. 

[AresKrieger]

Just now, spiralfuzion said:

the one on amazon isnt even listed on their warrenty page. WD blue https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013QFRS2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505015655&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+blue+2tb 

 

That's weird.

Well then they likely have a specific policy for amazon that is akin to 2yr replace with refurb, or they use a proof of purchase policy for all non affiliates that can allow for refurb assuming the amazon reviews are correct

 

I would try asking @Captain_WD about warranty policies but he hasn't been on in a year 

[AresKrieger]

Oh that's why, huh I didn't know that

Well it explains why he isn't on anymore, anyway just look on their site for a general warranty policy and it should probably list the terms which should include a replace/repair policy

[seagate_surfer]

So just to help break down our consumer-grade product types to hopefully help make them more understandable (I will also throw in the current lineup model of our 2TB in each category, since it seems that is what you're on the hunt for) Collectively, these are known as the Seagate Guardian Series:

"Desktop and Gaming Drives": Current Seagate branding: BarraCuda. Current 2TB model: ST2000DM006 These drives come with a 2-year warranty, are rated for use 8 hours a day x 5 days a week, and up to 55TB of data per year. These are your standard, run-of-the-mill, average user type drives. There is also a current line of hybrid desktop drives, current Seagate branding: FireCuda, that combine an 8GB SSD cache for faster load-time performance, with a larger spinning disk capacity so that you get some of the performance benefit people love about SSDs, while still getting bang-for-your-buck storage space. The warranty on the FireCuda is 5 years. The 3.5" 2TB model is ST2000DX002. 

"NAS Drives". Current Seagate branding: IronWolf. Current 2TB model: ST2000VN004. These drives come with a 3-year warranty, are rated for use 24x7 use, up to 180 TB per year. These drives are more robust than standard desktop drives, they are engineered to go in NAS units, where people store large amounts of drives in enclosures, and detect and mitigate issues from the sheer vibrational forces that can otherwise disrupt the performance of drives and wear them down. They are designed to be able to run constantly without being spun down, and handle use in cloud type environments where large numbers of users could be accessing the data all at once. 

Both the BarraCuda and IronWolf have more pricey versions known as "Pro" grade drives, which are more robust, have a 5 year warranty, higher workload ratings, faster RPM speeds, and come with 2 years free rescue services. the 2TB BarraCuda Pro model is ST2000DM009, and the 2TB IronWolf Pro is ST2000NE0025. 

"Surveillance Drives". Current Seagate branding: SkyHawk. Current 2TB model: ST2000VX008. These drives share some of the same robust characteristics with the IronWolf. They have a 3 year warranty, are rated for 24x7 use and up to 180TB of data per year. Where they differ is the use they are engineered for. SkyHawk drives are designed for use in high definition video recording, like surveillance DVRs and NVRs. Their firmware is designed for a use case that looks something like writing 90% of the time and reading (playback) the other 10%, so that they can consistently record large blocks of detailed blocks of data to provide quality video frames without drops. Because of this, reading data falls lower on their priority list, and they are not ideal for balanced read/write workload environments. 

Hopefully this helps clarify things a little better. Thank you for considering Seagate, regardless of which drive you decide to go with in the end!

[Columbo]

14 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

So just to help break down our consumer-grade product types to hopefully help make them more understandable (I will also throw in the current lineup model of our 2TB in each category, since it seems that is what you're on the hunt for) Collectively, these are known as the Seagate Guardian Series:

"Desktop and Gaming Drives": Current Seagate branding: BarraCuda. Current 2TB model: ST2000DM006 These drives come with a 2-year warranty, are rated for use 8 hours a day x 5 days a week, and up to 55TB of data per year. These are your standard, run-of-the-mill, average user type drives. There is also a current line of hybrid desktop drives, current Seagate branding: FireCuda, that combine an 8GB SSD cache for faster load-time performance, with a larger spinning disk capacity so that you get some of the performance benefit people love about SSDs, while still getting bang-for-your-buck storage space. The warranty on the FireCuda is 5 years. The 3.5" 2TB model is ST2000DX002. 

"NAS Drives". Current Seagate branding: IronWolf. Current 2TB model: ST2000VN004. These drives come with a 3-year warranty, are rated for use 24x7 use, up to 180 TB per year. These drives are more robust than standard desktop drives, they are engineered to go in NAS units, where people store large amounts of drives in enclosures, and detect and mitigate issues from the sheer vibrational forces that can otherwise disrupt the performance of drives and wear them down. They are designed to be able to run constantly without being spun down, and handle use in cloud type environments where large numbers of users could be accessing the data all at once. 

Both the BarraCuda and IronWolf have more pricey versions known as "Pro" grade drives, which are more robust, have a 5 year warranty, higher workload ratings, faster RPM speeds, and come with 2 years free rescue services. the 2TB BarraCuda Pro model is ST2000DM009, and the 2TB IronWolf Pro is ST2000NE0025. 

"Surveillance Drives". Current Seagate branding: SkyHawk. Current 2TB model: ST2000VX008. These drives share some of the same robust characteristics with the IronWolf. They have a 3 year warranty, are rated for 24x7 use and up to 180TB of data per year. Where they differ is the use they are engineered for. SkyHawk drives are designed for use in high definition video recording, like surveillance DVRs and NVRs. Their firmware is designed for a use case that looks something like writing 90% of the time and reading (playback) the other 10%, so that they can consistently record large blocks of detailed blocks of data to provide quality video frames without drops. Because of this, reading data falls lower on their priority list, and they are not ideal for balanced read/write workload environments. 

Hopefully this helps clarify things a little better. Thank you for considering Seagate, regardless of which drive you decide to go with in the end!

Chief, the benchmarks on http://hdd.userbenchmark.com say the Barracuda (effective speed) is faster than the FireCuda and IronWolf. More importantly the hybrid FireCuda is slightly slower but supposed to be faster. The good news for Seagate. The WD Black drives are cost prohibitive based on on P:P ratings that is Price to Performance. I made that last part up for effect. 

http://hdd.userbenchmark.com